[Related: Lakeland District Debate arrives in Hangzhou]
On April 11, 2014, the Lakeland District Debate Team began the Zhejiang Regional Tournament in Hangzhou on the topic of whether China should prioritize reductions in income inequality over economic growth. One hundred and thirty three teams from Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Ningbo competed in the tournament.
Like the Chinese teams, we were given our code for the pairings.
And the debaters were welcomed at the opening assembly.
After the prelims, Priten, Humza, & Jatin engaged in a Q&A session with three competitively successful debaters from China, taking questions from more than 250 students in the audience.
Humza & Jatin were undefeated in prelims and advanced to the elimination debates as the 4th seed. They won their doubles and octos debates, but they were defeated in the quarterfinals on a 2-1 decision by Rosyln (one of last year’s China National Champions) and her partner Jason from the Nanjing Foreign Language School. It was an incredible debate and I hope to have it online soon.
Humza and Jatin finished 5th.
Jatin was the tournament’s overall 10th best speaker and Humza was the tournament’s 7th best speaker.
After they were defeated, Jatin judged the novice finals.
